Tastes Like Halloween

I like Holidays waaaaaay more than I should. And not just the “big” holidays either (as you might have gathered from my Shamrock Shake post back in MAR). I blame The Social Parental Unit for this. You see, we had a HUGE picture window in the front of the house and EVERY holiday brought another display for the window. X-Mas, The Fourth, St. Paddy's, Easter, Valentine's Day, Memorial Day, even the beginning of baseball season brought new decorations for the house. So, yes, for the better part of the year the front of my house looked like the window display of a florist shop (minus the flowers) and, of course, I thought this was totally normal because, well, it's the only home I ever knew.

The first year I moved out I repeated the process. I happily bought my OWN decorations for the new apartment and plastered them all over the place for various holidays. However, I quickly figured something out: TAKING decorations down (and storing them) sucks ba||s >_< As such, my decorations are more scaled back these days (but still undoubtedly exceeding the “norm” for my demographic) however, when it comes to food, well, that's a different story. You don't have to put away and store food, now do you?!?!

Right off the bat, I'm not pretending that ANY of this stuff is particularly high-end or gourmet and fully admit that's high on the cheese factor. But that's OK. If you don't want to try a Jack In The Box Pumpkin Shake or Jones Candy Corn Soda, don't. But know that the stuff listed is pretty damn tasty if not kitschy.

I'm a sucker for pumpkin and, fortunately, our forefathers (or, at the very least, people that wrote the history of what our forefathers did) had the foresight to include pumpkins in Turkey Day, so the pumpkin flavor stretches well beyond OCT. So, if you buy a six-pack of pumpkin beer for Halloween and find it noxious, guess what? Bring a Holiday Five-Pack to a Halloween Party, a College Football Game or Thanksgiving and it's gone and you look like a thoughtful guest. The Hottie prefers a local Pumpkin Brew from Buffalo Bill's and it has pretty wide distribution on the Left Coast although she warms “it tastes VERY pumpkin-y” but, hey, if you're a purist, you probably aren't willing to give pumpkin beer a shot anyways :p Blue Moon and Sea Dog also make pumpkin beers with decent distribution as does Anheiser Busch under the Jack's Pumpkin label. I'm not going to bash Bud, per se, but just be warned that while it's meant to LOOK like a microbrew, it not...so don't spend microbrew $$$ on it.

If you're German (or simply abhor the idea of pumpkin beer) that's okay too. There are LOTS of true, non-seasonal microbrews that fit the Halloween theme: Arrogant Bastard, Dead Guy, Pete's Wicked, the Hobgoblin & Scarecrow brews from Wytchwood among others. In fact, most places that you'd buy hard-to-find liquor from (i.e. BevMo and Cost Plus in these parts) will have displays FEATURING beer with names or packaging that's lends itself to All Hollows Eve. Now, this option is going to cost you more $$$ since a lot of bottles retail for five bucks (or more) a pop but, in general, it's worth it AND a good excuse to try a couple beers you haven't had before.

Sadly, wine doesn't fare as well for Halloween. Thankfully there is no pumpkin wine (yet /shudder) but most spooky/halloween wines that we've tried aren't much better than Two-Buck Chuck at Trader Joe's. The bottles for Vampyre Merlot or the Evil Wines might look good, but that's about it. And, once you pour the wine out, it's just middle-of-the-road wine that you spent $$$ on. At least the pumpkin beer still TASTES halloweeny and the microbrew in the wicked bottle still tastes like a high end craftbrew after it's poured. Still, if you INSIST on getting a Halloweeny wine, go for the Black Cat Reisling from Germany. It's decent, not particularly expensive AND the black cat shaped bottle is seriously kewl and you'll prolly hang on to it for years to come.

On the non-alcoholic front, there are a surprising number of choices beyond kid friendly “punch” of dubious origin. Jones soda is always a solid choice and has wide distribution of it's Halloween sodas through Target. Four, eight-ounce cans in Halloween packaging will only put you back a buck fifty and come in favors like Candy Corn, Lemon Drop-Dead and Buried Pomegranate. And, like the pumkpin brews, if you try a can and don't like it, you've got spares to take to a party. Or, even better, they're good mixers for a drink! Just do what The Meat Guy (who found them too sweet) suggested and add coordinating vodka or schnapps and BAM instant mixed drink! In the half-sized cans they're ideal for this purpose. Beyond Jones, there are plenty of botiquey sodas that have offerings like Black Lemonade that you'll tend to find at high-end grocers.

On the hot beverage front, Spiced or Mulled Cider is a pretty common option. The pre-made Spiced Apple Cider at Trader Joe's is a fave of The Hottie's but, honestly, almost any cider warmed on the stove with the appropriate spices will do. Bonus, it makes the house smell r-e-a-l-l-y- good while it's simmering. If cider isn't your thing, Pumpkin Tea (Adagio & Lupica both have season varieties) and Pumpkin Coffee aren't that hard to find if you know where to look but my current favorite is Halloween Hot Cocoa. What makes it Halloween, you ask? Well, it's an odd white crystalline powder that turns bright orange when mixed with Hot H2O. Now, there is NO chocolate in this creation and it doesn't really taste like cocoa but, whatever is in it IS tasty and it's hard to beat a steaming cup of orange liquid with whipped cream on the Halloween-o-meter. Both Crate & Barrel and Sur La Table carry the seasonal beverage for as little as $1.25/pouch. Give it a shot and, if you don't like it, plop some pumpkin schnapps in it :D

EDIT: This year Papa Murphy's colored the pizza dough orange for their Pepperoni Jack O'Lantern Pizza (it's normally uncolored). At $7.99 it's always a crowd pleaser BUT make sure you phone in ahead - Halloween (along with the Super Bowl) is their busiest night of the year...